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To Team To Hunt-Where To Stay

Great, people are actually thinking about coming to Eustis! I suggest Cathedral Pines Campground as the best and most central. Call 246-3491. They are open until October 1st. And there is Natanis Point Campgound at the northern end of Chain of Ponds, 297-2694. They have no power or water. And then there are many primitive campgrounds but there's no way to know if they'll be taken or not. There are 2 on the road I live on plus more at the beach. I could help anyone try to find a place if they want primitive and free. Motels are inexpensive around here too, and some even have weekly rates.

With any luck we will be able to hit some of the caches in your area soon. We are going to Rangley for the Foreigner concert. I love the Stratton and Eustis area. There is excellant camping and hiking.

Foreigner will be at Saddleback for an outdoor concert July 29th.
I also recommend Cathedral Pines, its a great campground. We used to do some primitive camping on the Stratton Brook Pond Road, with a great view of Sugarloaf. It was the trail head for West and Avery peaks.

We used to camp out all the time at Cathedral Pines when we were kids back in the 60's and it was only like 3 bux a night back then. Don't know what it costs now though. We used to fish up at Sarampus Falls and then the Chain of Ponds, all fly fishing for us back then.

Just smile it won't crack your face

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four persons is
suffering from some sort of mental illness. Think of your three best
friends -- if they're okay, then it's you.

There are some beautiful caches in your neck of the woods. I've done some of the older ones.
The Bigelow Preserve cache scares me. Dad and I hiked the whole Bigelow range on the AT one summer (when I was about 10 years old) in record heat. We were supposed to go to the NH border, but I bailed after 3 days. Pretty mountain, but I'll have to get over the memories of profuse sweating!!!
I would like to get back to that area again with my boat and do the lake accessable caches around Rangely and still want to do the cache on Sugarloaf mountain.

My "Bigelow Preserve" cache is a park and grab, so don't be scared of it. Mainiac1957's "A View of the Lake" is on top of Cranberry Peak, a 3 hour hike up, so you can be scared of that. The cache on Sugarloaf is temporarily disabled, due to ice in it last winter. If a cache is still there but disabled and you find it, is it still a find??

Arrgh . . . no "sprinkling of micros" please, I'm begging you . . . they are the bane of my existence.

I mean that's not to say I don't enjoy a micro now and then (and in fact I won't often pass on one if I'm going by) and I do enjoy the fiendishly cleverly hid ones, but it seems as though in the past few months we've been bombarded with "seed" themed-micro caches . . . which aren't bad in themselves, but they just seem to spawn more and more of these types of caches and so very often you end up visiting lots and lots of guardrails when in fact some of these places could utilize regular cache containers which are infinitely more exciting to find and hide for kids (the chance to swap out swag) and for adults (I for one often try to jot down a few notes about the view, the search, etc.)

I also cannot fathom why some folks enjoy hiding micros in middle of the woods -- for me (a Magellan user) it's hard enough finding a regular sized cache much less a micro . . . although I must confess I have seen some micros in the woods which were appropriate. To me micros definitely seem better suited for placement in urban areas or in areas where placing a larger cache container might not be appropriate or practical (i.e. I have a micro that I placed in Dixmont since I only had permission to use a small section of land for my cache, I have done GRCs that offered a great view -- but there was no other place for a regular-sized cache.) Just my opinion. OK, enough of a rant on micros. . . .

When you're off the beaten path it may be hard to get a ton of folks to your area to cache, but one thing that definitely helps is cache saturation. I know for example that when I decide to go out on a day-long trip or an overnight caching trip finding an area that has lots of caches -- good caches -- ones that intrigue me (and for me that means a place with history, a scenic view, etc.) is the main draw. Numbers aren't everything, but it helps. If Location A and Location B both involve the same distance in traveling and both have interesting sounding caches (again, this is subjective), but Location B has a few more caches than Location A I'll often go to that location just because it offers me more caches to search out.

Distance is definitely a factor these days with the price of gas . . . and for me, more importantly, the cost of time. In fact the other day I finally had some free hours so I thought about going caching . . . I had three general locations in mind -- the Augusta area, Thomaston area and Greenville area. To be truthful I really wanted to head up into Greenville as there are a lot of caches I haven't done there and there's one in particular -- Pontiac Silver Streak -- that intrigues me just based on the name alone. My second choice was to grab some in the Thomaston area, but in the end I only had a few hours so I choose the cache location closest to me in Augusta.

Another aspect is the location of the caches in relation to main routes of travel. Caches close to or along main routes of travel will usually get more hits than caches that involve a little more travel off the "beaten path." In other words if I'm just passing through and notice a cache a mile off a main road I may be more apt to grab that cache versus a cache located 10 or even 5 miles off the main road. I've noticed this with caches in my area -- caches that are relatively close to the main drag so to speak get found a lot more frequently than some of my more isolated caches -- not that it's a bad thing . . . just a fact.

It also seems that many cachers will filter out (either manually or through software) caches that do not appeal to them based on the challenge level (terrain and difficulty.) For example, if I'm in the area and hoping to grab a bunch of caches I might pass on a cache that has a high terrain or difficultly level . . . especially if it involves a major hike and I have limited time (that's not to say I don't enjoy a good hike and trust me after doing a bunch of grab-and-go caches I really look forward to a short to moderate hike on many caches) or don't feel like hiking a mountain. Again, this is just me. I also generally steer away from water-based caches and the wickedly steep mountain caches . . . just not my thing.

Finally, one way to help boost finds is to host an event in the area. It seems as though events tend to bring more folks out to an area and the area caches. In addition, it seems as though some folks will put out new caches right before or on the day of the event as a way to lure even more cachers into the area -- especially those die-hard FTFers!

OK, this all said . . . I promise you here today . . . I will get up to your area . . . it just may be later than sooner . . . but someday. . . .

"Cache saturation", I like that term! So how many caches per mile do I need to get Eustis "saturated"? But host an event?? I've never even been to one although I have tried. I could rent the Community Building, have a potluck, but.... would anybody come??

"Cache saturation", I like that term! So how many caches per mile do I need to get Eustis "saturated"? But host an event?? I've never even been to one although I have tried. I could rent the Community Building, have a potluck, but.... would anybody come??